Eliza Fenwick

Who was Eliza Fenwick?

Eliza Fenwick was an English author whose works include, Secresy; or The Ruin on the Rock, as well as several children's books.

Fenwick's letters to her friend Mary Hays were edited and published in 1927 by A.F. Wedd in a book titled The Fate of the Fenwicks. She was a good friend of Charles and Mary Lamb, as well as Thomas Holcroft, Crabb Robinson and other literary figures. She and her husband were such intimates of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft that when the latter was dying, they spent the last week in that house:

"She had for nurses, or rather for friends, watching every occasion to serve her, Mrs. Fenwick, author of an excellent novel, entitled Secrecy, another very kind and judicious lady, and a favourite female servant....Four friends, Mr. Fenwick, Mr. Basil Montagu, Mr. Marshal, and Mr. Dyson, sat up nearly the whole of the last week of her existence in the house, to be dispatched, on any errand, to any part of the metropolis, at a moment's warning."